In order to ensure that no children are left on a bus, such as a school bus, drivers are trained to walk to the back of the bus to look for children who may still be on the bus before locking it up at the end of a run. This can be done at the school bus yard, or en route to the yard, so long as it is done at a time when the driver believes that all of the children are off of the bus. It can even be done while the bus is running. For example, if the driver wished to pull off on the side of the road on the way to the yard and do the check at that point, the requirement would be met. The timing or location of the check is not crucial, so long as the check is done.
However, driving a school bus is a demanding task and at the end of a shift, the driver is often tired and anxious to get home. Thus, even the best drivers can sometimes forget to perform the crucial check for children left on the bus. In those unlikely circumstances, the trauma suffered by a child that was left on the bus after the bus has been parked at the school bus yard and locked up for the night would be immeasurable. The bus company would likely then face negligence lawsuits from the child's parents and the driver would more than likely be fired.
There thus exists a need for a system on the bus to remind the driver to walk to the back of the bus to perform the check. An audible or visual alarm system which sounds when the bus ignition is turned off would be sufficient, as long as it required the driver to walk to the back of the bus to deactivate the system. In consultation with bus drivers, however, it was found that it is not necessary to have a system which could only be deactivated when the alarm was actually sounding. Such a system would not permit the driver to perform the check at any point along the route with the ignition running. It was also found that the bus owners desired a system which could be tied in with the existing wiring of the bus to eliminate the need for time-consuming and costly modifications to the bus.
Another pressing concern to school bus operators in particular is to ensure that the rear door and any other emergency exits of the vehicle are in proper working condition. A recent coroner's inquest into the death of children trapped in a burning in the Province of Ontario found that the deaths were attributable in part to the fact that the rear door of the bus could not be opened. Consequently, one of the recommendations from the inquest was to require a regular inspection of the rear door of the bus. Of course, such an inspection requires the driver to walk to the back of the bus and manually operate the door. This is a third aspect of the existing need for safety systems on buses.
Attempts in the prior art to design such a system have failed on the two key points outlined above and would not satisfy the third aspect of the rear door inspection. Reference may be had for example to U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,651 of Heckart, issued Jul. 7, 1992, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,323 of Rogers, issued Sep. 7, 1993. Neither of these references provides a means to deactivate the system with the ignition running and Heckart in particular would require significant modifications to the existing wiring of the bus to be installed. Rogers is similarly deficient in that it is only activated by the ignition switch and not any of the other switches or existing systems on the bus.